Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Best Laid Plans, Part I

Several weeks ago I was contacted by a United States
citizen, Lucy, whose fiancé, Samuel, a native of Chile, had been arrested on a
charge of Assault on a Police Officer, and who had an ICE detainer. Turns out
he had been brought into the country many years ago as a young teenager, on a
tourist visa, and had overstayed.

We discussed what could be done to solve his problems, and
step one involved getting the couple married. Not a problem, I’ve done that
before. In fact, in this case it was even easier than the previous case I have
written about, because our local jail is willing to have marriages done without
going the “guerilla” route. With a judge’s order in hand, the happy couple was
soon wed, and once again a client had avoided the problems of a marriage in
proceedings.

So, now I had a client who was the immediate relative of a
United States citizen and who was eligible to adjust his status as a result of
his lawful entry. Lucy and I quickly assembled an I-130 petition and got it
filed. Progress is being made, and we are moving along nicely.

The next hurdle was the criminal charge, which was one that
the immigration authorities view harshly, and which could hurt his chances of
being granted a discretionary adjustment of status before the immigration
judge, and would cause problems when seeking a bond from ICE. I contacted the
police officer involved, and explained the potentially devastating consequences
to Samuel and his wife. After we discussed the circumstances of the arrest, the
officer told me that he would be happy to see the charge dismissed because he
thought Samuel was just drunk and didn’t really intend to assault him. In fact,
he said he would write a letter to that effect if needed. The District Attorney
agreed to reduce the charge to one of drunk and disorderly, and Samuel was on
his way to ICE custody.

Within a day, ICE agreed to set a bond for Samuel, and we
wouldn’t have to worry about him getting shipped to Georgia, or having to file
for a bond hearing in immigration court. We continue to move along nicely.

Yesterday, I heard that Lucy had posted the bond. Samuel was
out and home. Things are looking good, and we schedule a meeting to go over the
next steps: adjustment of status before the immigration judge or, if we were
lucky, the government might even agree to administratively close proceedings.

Midway through this afternoon, I got a frantic text from
Lucy to say Samuel had just been arrested at the DMV. It turns out he had tried to
get a drivers license by presenting a fake ID. Needless to say, he is back in
the jail and ICE plans on detaining him again. I wonder to myself, “What was he
thinking?” Followed by, “What on earth can I say to ICE to get them to let him
bond out again?”